In ice skates, it is important to provide good lateral support either side of the ankle joint and the general trend in skate design has been stronger and harder materials to enhance lateral support. In addition to lateral support, provision must be made for pivotal movement about the ankle joint, both forwardly and rearwardly to accommodate the natural movement of the skater's leg and foot. Unfortunately, this motion has been restricted by the use of these new materials reducing the effectiveness of the skater and often contributing to injuries of the soft tissues adjacent the achilles tendon region. These injuries can be extremely painful, are slow to heel and easily recur.
Some attempts have been made to provide additional movement about the ankle, for example, two piece boots have been proposed where a lower portion of the boot cooperates with an upper hinged piece whereby forward and backward movement about the ankle joint is provided. Skates of this design do work satisfactorily, however, they generally require a separate inner boot to be placed within outer moldings.
Another approach to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,716, which issued to Norgiel, Nov. 3, 1970, where the upper portion of the skate has an enlarged throat portion such that the upper portion of the foot can move forwardly and rearwardly within this enlarged throat portion to provide the necessary movement. With this design, there is no flexing of the upper portion of the skate as the leg merely moves within an enlarged region. This solution is not satisfactory for a number of reasons, primarily due to its inability to provide the necessary lateral support, while allowing this forward and rearward movement.
According to the present invention, the boot of the skate is weakened in the anchilles tendon region by weakening or removing a portion of the boot along the generally vertical axis of the skate. A reinforcing member, when necessary, is placed over the weakened region and is adapted to facilitate the pivoting movement about the ankle joint. The weakened area of the body reduces the force required to pivot forwardly or rearwardly and the reinforcing member, as it somewhat oversized relative to the opening, provides additional lateral support.
According to preferred aspect of the invention, the weakened area is produced by cutting out a diamond shaped region at the back of the boot, generally along the vertical axis.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the reinforcing member includes a number of generally horizontally disposed slits, which in the normal position of the skate, at least some of them have a center gap which are reduced with pivotal movement rearwardly and all gaps tend to expand with pivotal movement forwardly.